Electrical heating systems are used for heating up or defrost rails, including switching rails, and other components of a switch to keep them free from snow and ice. The heating system may be controlled by a temperature sensor and a precipitation gauge. One problem with this heating system is that it does not always detect weather conditions correctly. In high wind and driven snow with ensuing drifting the heating system functions poorly or its capacity is simply too low for the weather circumstances.
In order to improve the working of the heating system, tarpaulins or inclined plywood boards have been placed alongside heating points to help provide shielding and to attempt to reduce heat loss. Since the barriers are solid, they have to be placed at a distance from the rail to avoid direct contact with part of a train or rail maintenance vehicle travelling on the rails, thereby limiting their shielding function. Also, the presence of the tarpaulins and boards impede repair work on the track and whilst not fulfilling their function satisfactorily they still require inspection and maintenance. Where inspection or repair is required, removal of the tarpaulins and boards is undesirably time consuming and labor intensive.
In WO2005/1033847 the tarpaulins and plywood boards have been replaced with a wind and snow protection comprising a flexible strip arrangement for fitting along a rail in a railway track and thereby some of the disadvantages mentioned above with solid barriers are overcome. The flexible strip arrangement has a fixing part and a flexible screen projecting there from, which forms a curtain extending along the fixing part. The flexible screen of such a strip arrangement may be formed of bristles. The flexible strip arrangement is fixed adjacent to a track rail by a fixing element to a sleeper. Thereby a flexible protection is formed which prevents or at least substantially reduces the cooling effect of the wind on the rail and the formation of snow-drift up against the rail.
In WO2011/133501 another flexible protection is shown including a barrier having an upper edge with deflecting elements movable relative each other. The barrier system comprises a knuckle-hinge joint assembly with a removable pin for securing a mounting bracket holding the barrier to a base plate fixed to a sleeper. Due to this hinge joint the mounting bracket with barrier may be swung away from the rail from an operating position, where the barrier is disposed uprightly alongside the adjacent one of the track rails, to an inspection position where the barrier is spaced farther away from the adjacent one of the track rails than when the barrier is disposed in the operating position, thereby providing access to that part of the rail. Hence, removal of the barrier is not necessary for track inspection or repair.